Especially in Go, I think this handicap system is under-used—in my opinion, it changes the game less than giving the weaker player handicap stones on the board at the start.
I think “the character of a game” preserved by existing handicap systems of Go/Chess/Shogi (handicap stones and piece odds) is the evaluation function from board position to winning probability. That is, you use the same evaluation function to decide whether you are winning or losing given board position.
With point odds in Go you are suggesting, you can be winning while board position is losing. If evaluation function returns point difference you can do the adjustment, but I think evaluation function return type is closer to winning probability in practice.
This argument would be more compelling to me if komi weren’t already used—given that you already have to factor that number in, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal to use a different number instead.
Handicap Go does traditionally also alter the point odds; in an even game, a komi worth ~7 stones is added to the second player’s score, but in handicap games, the komi is set to 0 instead; so the mapping from board state to winning is not perfectly preserved. That said, a komi difference of ~7 is much more subtle than the difference that would be required to completely balance a many-stone handicap
I think “the character of a game” preserved by existing handicap systems of Go/Chess/Shogi (handicap stones and piece odds) is the evaluation function from board position to winning probability. That is, you use the same evaluation function to decide whether you are winning or losing given board position.
With point odds in Go you are suggesting, you can be winning while board position is losing. If evaluation function returns point difference you can do the adjustment, but I think evaluation function return type is closer to winning probability in practice.
This argument would be more compelling to me if komi weren’t already used—given that you already have to factor that number in, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal to use a different number instead.
Handicap Go does traditionally also alter the point odds; in an even game, a komi worth ~7 stones is added to the second player’s score, but in handicap games, the komi is set to 0 instead; so the mapping from board state to winning is not perfectly preserved. That said, a komi difference of ~7 is much more subtle than the difference that would be required to completely balance a many-stone handicap